The digital version of the new fire emblem actually also requires DLC to get both. You get to choose which path in game instead of when you buy the SKU but after you choose, the game is locked to that path until you buy the other half. They also will have a deluxe retail SKU containing all 3 paths for 9200 yen.

It's only confusing because it makes no sense.

It makes perfect sense when you consider that Nintendo has seemingly embraced every bad habit of the modern game industry since they started reporting in the red, especially in regards to DLC (usually via Amiibo).  If Nintendo releases FE like this in NA, I think they're going to be very disappointed in the sales.  Hopefully NoA and NoE manage to drum some amount of sense into this nonsense before the game's released in the West.

Just a heads up guys. The RSS feed has the podcast episode labelled incorrectly as last week's episode causing my podcathcer to not download the new episode. It thinks that it's last week's episode so it's not downloading it automatically. I had to manually download it.

It should now be fixed. Thanks for the heads-up.

I can't wait to go back and beat Twilight Princess for a 3rd time (first since time since 2008 though). It has its flaws but overall I think it's an excellent Zelda with fantastic dungeons, but I'll get more into that in the Retroactive thread  ;D

Ugh...Twilight Princess...don't think i'll be paricipating in that one, I tried twice to get into that one, just couldn't. 

Has it been that long since NFR's debut episode?  3 years?  I had to double check, looks like you're coming up to that milestone pretty soon.  Congrats, guys, that's pretty awesome.  Does NFR have any special plans for their 3 year pod-iversary?

Not at the moment, but we're happy to take suggestions. For our recent 50th episode milestone, we watched & talked about The Wizard (which Donald had never seen). I have something planned for our 69th episode, but we haven't planned anything for the 3 year anniversary episode yet.

Additionally, contrary to what James believes, I'd be shocked if Nintendo manufactures any of their own toy lines, including the Amiibo. 

I doubt that's a core competency to them.  They'd be better served to have a supplier manufacture them & send them to Nintendo so they could then distribute them internationally to retailers.  Suppliers who specialize in toy mfg would be better equiped to produce these toys at the price point Nintendo wants, as well as already have a pre-established quality & delivery record/infrastructure that they could leverage instead of building this business from the ground up.  I think it'd be better for Nintendo to utilize best-in-class mfg partners than try to reinvent the wheel by building in-house.

Regarding the argument Jonny made on increasing price on Amiibo - Supply & Demand don't have a pure 1-to-1 relationship.  Nintendo priced Amiibo based on what they believed the market could bear.  Because Marth, Villager, & now Jigglypuff ran out quick doesn't mean by itself that they should be priced higher, it just means those have a scarcity that the hardcore collectors were running to gather-up.  Many stores in my area have actually permanently reduced the price of the Mario/Peach/Luigi/Donkey Kong characters to $10.  You could argue that maybe the scarce amiibo should have an increased price ($15?), but then you run risk of frustrating your consumer base on variable pricing with no percieved added value other than the rarity.  If Nintendo is to run any Amiibo at an increased price, i'd expect it to be a special variant that's in very limited quantity.

I suspect, and this is just a guess, that Nintendo isn't that concerned about frustrating consumers when it comes to how Amiibo figures are priced or made available.  ;)

Inazuma Eleven still comes in two versions per game.

I bet they are, especially considering they're planning on releasing another wave of Marth amiibos.  I also guess they're more concerned about having too much supply more than not filling all the demand of these figurines.

I still disagree. Nintendo won't care if consumers are frustrated until it has a tangible effect on their bottom line. At the moment, that's not happening because their target sales are low enough that "meeting demand" is much less important than selling through and meeting those low goals quickly.


Releasing another wave of Marth Amiibo figures isn't because they care about consumers - it's because that's cross promotion for the recent 3DS game and because they know the shipment will sell through (probably via preorders) anyway.

I never said Nintendo's motivations are based on caring for their consumers.  I agree profit is the primary motivator, much like any other company.  You're the one injecting caring about customers into the discussion.  We just disagree as to whether or not Nintendo cares about frustrating their customers, not about whether they're motivated by customer service or profit.

"You will find more amiibo angst then Jigglypuffs at Nintendo World Report"

I could bring this to so many levels, you realize that right?

Jonny, regarding BOXBOY!, I'm pretty sure none of the collectible crowns have time limits.  All the crowns in each level will be greyed if the number of boxes you've made is over a certain limit.  The bottom screen has a countdown showing how many more boxes you can make over the entire level before the crowns are uncollectible.  The crowns are removed with that number goes negative.


You might have made too many boxes at one point and mistook it for a time limit.  If I'm wrong about this I'm going to look like a jackas.

You're right. I saw the total box limit and thought it was a timer. In my defense, I'd played all of ten minutes of the game by the time we started recording. Have played it much more since then!

I would say it's undeniably clear that keeping tight stock on amiibo is, at least in Nintendo's judgement, smart business. If they didn't believe that to be the case, they would have already fixed the problem.


To them, over-producing and later having to mark down inventory cuts into the already tight margin on toy manufacturing. Additionally, keeping old amiibo in stock would require a more complex supply chain, with additional production lines and possible additional production facilities. This complicates not only the actual act of making the amiibo, but also in procuring materials and in the logistics of moving both raw and finished goods to and from the marketplace. Lastly, in the on-going war for shelf-space at retailers Nintendo would have ameliorated the concerns of retailers, still recently burned by the Great Plastic Instrument Depression, with assurances that unlike Disney and Skylanders they did not desire to take up a vast amount of retail space or slam them with 100 SKUs every 6-10 months.

James Jones is the voice of cold, hard reason. Somebody send his post to Chris Kohler.

You say that but we've had 6 different versions of yoshi at this point.

In limited quantities.

Good observations.


Additionally, if you've been to a Wal-Mart recently, you'll see that most of them are still stuck with stock from the first Skylanders games, 4 iterations ago.  I'm sure that neither Nintendo or retailers want to be trapped in that scenario.

Wasn't Yoshi one of the ones they were having a hard time getting rid of?

Nope. Please elaborate because I do not know what sort of levels you think you can bring it to nor do I think you can bring it to whatever sort of levels you think exist.

So who was playing the role of Mr. Jon Lindemann in this episode's Now Playing?

The REAL Jon Lindemann, duh.

(Karlie)

I love how Karlie always shows up in the most unexpected ways.